336 Canon A. M. Norman on 



tlie sands at Lee and Woolacombe, North Devon. ^Ix. T. 

 Scott has met with it in several places in the Firth of Forth. 



Mr. Scott writes of this species : — " Leptognathia Lillje- 

 Jwrgi appears to be somewhat out of place among* the species 

 of that genus described by Sars; these all iiave the 'supe- 

 rior antennae in tiie female distinctly 4-articulated,' whereas 

 in this one the fourth joint is described as ' quite rudimentary.' 

 In the specimens from the Firth of Forth I have been unable 

 to satisfactorily make out a fourth joint; in one or two in- 

 stances, when there was the appearance of a fourth joint, 

 examination with a ' higher ' objective showed that the 

 appearance was produced by the approximation of the bases 

 of the subterminal set£e. For tliis reason I was inclined at 

 first to consider the species as a member of the genus Typhlo- 

 tanais, the females of which have the superior antennaj 

 3-articulate ; but as the general structure of the antennse in 

 the male and female, together with the form of the chelae, do 

 not fit in well with either genus, it is perhaps better to leave 

 this Isopod where it is at present. In the female the first 

 joint of the superior antenna? is long, but the other joints are 

 short, and the second appears to be hinged to the first joint, 

 for in some of my specimens the short end-joints bend over 

 at nearly right angles to the first, as if the antennas were 

 being used as a grasping-organ." 



I have written to i\Ir. Stebbing to ask his present views as 

 to this species. With regard to the antenna he writes : — 

 " In the upper antennee the little fourth joint about which 

 Scott is doubtful is quite'distinct under a quarter-of-an-inch 

 power. It is a stumpy little articulus, not a triangle such as 

 could be represented by the meeting of two setules." As 

 compared with L. longiremis " the difterences are consider- 

 able. The upper antennse, as Scott has noticed, are strikingly 

 unlike. The thumb of the first gnathopods and the tubercu- 

 lation of the fingers do not at all agree, and the last perajopods 

 are also rather strikingly unlike. As to the uropodsyou will 

 notice that in my species the second joint of the inner ramus 

 is longer than the first, and the reverse in Sars's figure. The 

 apical part of the last pleon-segment is a little differently 

 shaped in the two species, and in L. lougicorni's there is a 

 denticle on each side of wliich I find not the slightest trace 

 in L. Lilljehorgi. The latter species in the female appears to 

 be much smaller than in the former. I incline to agree with 

 Scott that it looks very like a linking species between 

 Typhlotanais and Leptognathia!''' (Stebbing, in litt.) 



